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 Organizers of the 10-day event, a key launching pad for
Hollywood's award season, said the inclusion of TV shows
reflected the "growing convergence and artistic equality between
television and cinema."
But the ascent of television is also partly the result of
Hollywood studios favoring big-budget franchise films, often
based on comic books, that appeal to a wide audience, industry
veterans said.
Many writers and directors who are keen to produce more complex
and challenging stories are looking elsewhere, said Matt Damon,
who won an Oscar for co-writing "Good Will Hunting."
"A lot of us spent our adult lives thinking about two hours and
three acts. (We're) now migrating to television going, 'OK, how
do I tell this story over 20 hours?'" he told Reuters.
"The movie that was my bread and butter for years, the $25
million to $50 million character drama, is just gone. They just
don't make that anymore."
The six programs in the Sept 10-20 festival's "Primetime"
section include U.S. family comedy "Casual," Icelandic crime
drama "Trapped" and French supernatural thriller "The Returned."
Some critics say the so-called second golden age of television,
which has produced the likes of "Breaking Bad" and "Mad Men,"
has supplanted movies as the more sophisticated and influential
medium.
But actors, directors and screenwriters attending the festival
said the issue shouldn't be seen this way.
"I don't think it's a threat at all," said "12 Years a Slave"
star Chiwetel Ejiofor. "We've all enjoyed (these shows) becoming
as brilliant as they have."
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"Gladiator" director Ridley Scott, who got his start doing BBC
programs in the 1960s, said that with many big movies being
"fundamentally brainless," television was proving to be a great
breeding ground for new writers.
For a long time, the film industry has undervalued what writers do,
and the rise of television has helped rectify this, said "Meet the
Parents" director Jay Roach.
"It's good for all of us if there are no monopolies either way," he
said.
Indeed, some stories are best told over long arcs, said "Breaking
Bad" star Bryan Cranston, at the festival with the biopic "Trumbo."
"A story should dictate the medium, not the other way around," he
said. "'Breaking Bad' for instance, would have made a terrible
movie."
Television now is similar to what it was in Britain in the 1970s,
when the struggles of the UK film industry sent many performers to
the small screen, said Oscar-winner Helen Mirren, a luminary of both
mediums.
"The two have always been in a symbiotic relationship," she said. "I
always used to say film is alive and well and living on television
in England at that time. And I think that's still the case."
(Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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